Potctry coop



v WW/W 1929. I. WILLOUGHBY 1,707,834

' I POULTRY COOP Filed March 1.927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 m'faeJJeJ ,Patented Apr. 2, 1929.

IRA wILLoUeHBY, 02* upon, oHIo.

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Application filed March 7, 1927. Serial No. 173,506.

This invention relates to a coop construction, and has for its primary object the construction and arrangement of parts whereby the size of the usual opening may be considerably enlarged and the dooroperated to effectively regulate the size of the opening.

An object of the invention is the novel manner of constructing and arranging the door so that the rods of the door may be slid in parallelism with the rods of the coop so as to minimize space and at the same time effectively house and protect the door in its movement toward an open and closed position.

Another object of my invention is the simplified construction of locking device, which in a very simple operation may effectively lock the door in closed position.

Besides the above, my invention is distinguished in the novel design of lock device that may be made entirely of wood to reduce the cost of manufacture without in any way interfering with the positive operation thereof. v

A feature of my invention is the construction of a lock in all appearance similar to the other elements entering into the construction of the coop but upon slight adjustment may either allow the door to easily open or will efiectively lock the door in closed position.

My improved construction and design of parts and the manufacture and cost of the coop as a whole is materially reduced.

Vith these and other objects in view, my invention will be better understood from the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of the crate;

Figure 2 is a side elevation;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view;

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view;

Figure 5 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view illustrating the lock feature;

Figure 6 is a sectional view on the line 66 of Figure 5;

Again referring to the drawings illustrating one of the many constructions of my invention, the numeral 1 designates in its entirety the body of the crate, which comprises v the bottom 2, sides 3, ends at and top 5. The top 5 in turn comprises the side bars 6, end bars 7 effectively secured to the side bars, as indicated at 8, and the cross bars 9 provided with the tongues 10 dove-tailing into the slots 11 in the side bars and secured in place by the pins 12.

Supported by the bars in spaced relation are the rods 13 assembled in a position to pro- 'vide the opening 14. This opening is ofa considerably increa'sed'size' due to the fact that I provide a specially designed door and may be of an increased area to effectively close the enlarged opening. This door comprises the slides 15 and 16, the latter provided with a plurality of passages 17 slidably receiving a plurality of rods 13. These slides 15 and 16 have secured thereto a plurality of rods 18 slidably mounted in the passage 19 in one of the cross bars 9 in position to slide in parallelism with certain of the rods 13. One of the rods 18, hereinafter known as the lock rod 20, is mounted, as illustrated at 21, to have restricted lateral movement so as to either be positioned in alignment with the through hole 22 in the cross bar or to be moved into a position to engage within the pocket 23 off-set from the hole 22 to provide the wall 24 for abutting engagement with the end of the lock rod 20.

It will now be appreciated that I provide a coop construction with the parts so arranged and assembled that the opening can be considerably enlarged due to the special design of door, wherein the rods are so positioned as to slide between the associated rods 13. This parallel sliding movement of the door assures the positive opening and closing thereof and reduces to a minimum the possibilities of breakage thereof. Through the simple operation of giving slight lateral movements to the lock rod, the door may be effectively locked in position and may be just as easily moved to an open position by a slight adjustment of the lock rod. As the design and arrangement of parts are such that the same may be constructed entirely of wood, it will be understood that thecost of manufacture is greatly reduced. The length of the lock rod 20 is such that when the lock rod is in contact with the keeper wall 2 1, the slide 16 is held under pressure in contact with the adjacent cross bar 9, with the result that the lock rod will not become accidently disengaged from the keeper wall.

The simplicity of construction and .the simple machine operations necessary to produce the various parts and the inexpensive manner in which the parts may be assembled enables me to produce a coop at a relatively low manufacturing cost, and this feature combined with the meritorious features of the coop as a whole greatly increases the sales possibilities.

It is, of course, to be understood that the lock rod may be mounted in various other manners than illustrated and its manner of engagement with parts of the coop may be brought about in various other manners and, therefore, I do not desire to be limited in any manner except as defined in the appended claim.

I claim A coop including a side embodying a plurality of rods arranged to provide a door opening, a cross bar carried by said side at one side of thedoor opening and provided with openings, a second cross bar carried by said side at the opposite side of the door opening, slides mounted on certain of the rods at opposite sides of said first cross bar, rods secured to and between the slides and slidably arranged in certain of the openings of said first cross bar, the slides and rods carried thereby constituting a door, the remaining opening of said first cross bar being laterally enlarged to provide a keeper wall, and a lock rod pivoted at one end to one of the slides and adapted to have its free end arranged in contact with the keeper Wall to hold the door closed with the other of its IRA lVILLOUGHBY. 

